Monday, March 17, 2014

St. Patrick's Day at Key West








Found it 03/17/2014You found  Key West Marine Park Visit Log
When we planned our trip to Key West we did not realize that this was not only St. Paddies Day but also the start of Spring Break for many kids. The area of downtown was wild and crazy with no open parking spots so we came over here where there were actually parking spaces and the youngsters were less prone to the green beer illness. It was a beautiful day and the park was pleasant. Logging the cache with the permission of the owner. Thanks for showing us this place


 
Found it 03/17/2014You found  Blizzards are better than Hurricanes! Visit Log
In Key West on a crazy Saint Patrick's Day. It turned out that this was not the best time to come here, the downtown is a zoo. We thought we'd collect a number of caches today, but the traffic and crowds were unreal. This was on our "to do" list because in Michigan, we are more familiar with blizzards than hurricanes. We gave up trying to drive around and took the trolley ride, then we looked around some, drove over here, made this find, signed the log, traded sigs, left our pen, replaced the cache, and then left town. 
Found it 03/17/2014You found  Green Thumbs Up Visit Log
This is our first trip to Key West. What a crazy day!! Monday of Spring Break and St. Paddies Day combined. Driving downtown required the patience of Job. There was nowhere to park, all the spaces were full and it seemed that every other vehicle was either a scooter, one of those little electric rent-a-car buggies, or one of the trolley trains. Throw in the crowds of bikes and alcohol impaired pedestrians and driving was less than pleasant.
Here at least there were parking spaces and none of the rowdies from the pub crawls. We had a travel bug which came from Europe and wishes to go to India. We couldn't assist it in that and we don't know anyone who can so we thought that, since it had come to the USA, maybe the owner would like to see that it landed in the southern most spot. This is a beautiful spot. By the time we found it our time was limited and we did not do it justice. Found the cache in it's unique location, signed the log, traded pens and left the bug. We hope we will be able to come back another time.
Found it 03/17/2014You found  My Moon Visit Log
We came down to Key West on a crazy day. It was the start of Spring Break and St Paddies Day. The entire town was full of young kids dressed in wild green costumes staggering from bar to bar. I got some pictures of the activity at GZ and also got a bit wet from the waves crashing over the break wall. 
Found it 03/17/2014You found  USA, all the way South Visit Log
This was not the best day to visit Key West. It certainly is not the day to try to take a picture of the monument. It is the first Monday of Spring Break, it is Saint Patrick's Day, and whether it is a factor or not, tonight is a full moon. The town is a mob scene, folks in all manner of green costumes wandering from bar to bar with no concern for traffic signals, cars, bikes, or other pedestrians. It seems that every other vehicle is either a little electric rental car or a trolley. As you can see in our picture, the line to take a picture at the monument was over a half hour wait. I did get a closer shot just after a wave crashed over the sea wall and drenched all the bystanders. (Myself included)






Sunday, March 16, 2014

Heading for the Keys



Found it 03/16/2014You found  Sea (of) Glass Coin Cache Visit Log
We found the cache on our first ever trip to the Keys, I logged the find with a full description on our adventure and then due to problems with the wifi at our lodgings, deleted it. Short version, despite the presence of muggles, we scooped up the container, signed the log, swapped a path tag for our flashlight and Jack Squat and replaced as found. 
Found it 03/16/2014You found  Leg stretcher 305 Visit Log
Boy we needed this cache. First because by the time we got to the end of the turnpike we needed to get out and stretch our legs and second because when we became snowbirds this year we decided to set the same goal here in Florida that we have accomplished back up in Michigan, that is to find at least one cache in each county. This is our first Miami-Dade find.
Tftc

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Go South Fork!



SOUTH FORK 4, MARTIN COUNTY 3
At Martin County
Singles: 1. Michael Glaspey (MC) d. Bret Munson, 6-0, 6-0; 2. Reese Peppler (SF) d. Luke Hyland, 6-4, 6-0; 3. Lucas Anderson (MC) d. Taylor Phillips, 6-2, 6-0; 4. Ethan Conrad (SF) d. Leo Cusumano, 6-3, 6-3; 5. Dylan Gillespie (SF) d. Erik Clifton, 6-3, 6-0.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Monday Again



Blood draw in Stuart

Gym

Laundry

Hooray - Laurie invites us for a chili dinner!

We get to see Dylan

Chip gets home from work

Chili is yummy

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Sunday on the Island

Hutchinson Island is one of our favorite places.  It's close, beautiful, relaxing, charming, and ocean side.  What more could you want?  Sunday, however, it turned out to be very crowded.  Everybody else in the area had the same idea.  We managed to have a wonderful day anyway - driving,  rubber-necking at the scenery, caching, and enjoying the sea breezes.  We took 95 up to Port Ste. Lucie, drove east to the water, crossed all of the bridges, and arrived at the Island.  We began our leisurely drive north on Ocean Blvd. right alongside the ocean.

Some of the public access areas where caches are located have colorfully painted signs.  I love these :)


A perfect beach day - if you don't mind a little wind!

Dick admiring the ocean

Dick on the boardwalk - The beach lifeguard shack is flying the red flag


Off the Island now, at Sewall's Point - this sign is a first for us!


Didn't find it 03/09/2014You couldn't find Under The Archipelago Visit Log
2 huts, searched them both, inside and out 
Found it 03/09/2014You found  Never Yield While Geocaching Visit Log
Made the find and signed the log but this one needs work. Log is full and slightly damp. Nice neighborhood, thanks for showing it to us. 
Found it 03/09/2014You found  Look "in" Point Visit Log
Another fantastically beautiful day to drive the island and enjoy the scenery. This is an area we had never stopped to look at before. Made the find and stamped the log and replaced as found. On the way out I had a nice conversation with a couple of other retired folks who told us that this is a great area to see Manatees. They had seen a wounded youngster by the bridge tended by its mom. When we got back it was gone. Thanks for bringing us here. 
Found it 03/09/2014You found  Coming soon by - HH Visit Log
Today was a beautiful day, sunny cloudless skies, temp in the upper 70's. We decided to drive the island, enjoy the sun and the beaches and find a couple of caches. This was the first one we looked for. While checking GZ, a covey of fire rescue vehicles came by southward bound with lights and sirens in action. Later, down south we saw a helicopter landing in one of the ocean side parks. We never saw what the crisis was but it was a first for us.
Found the cache, signed the log and replaced as found. Thanks for the adventure. 





Saturday, March 08, 2014

A Great Florida Saturday


Our Florida days are so beautiful !  This is another perfect day - blue skies, nice moderate temperature, lots of sunshine - couldn't ask for anything better!

The three of us went over to Halpatiokee to maintain the Picnic with Grandma cache.  Somebody had posted that there were no goodies left in it.  It was a great morning for a walk down the path, and the cache was easily found.  Lots of picnics going on today - every pavilion was occupied, and we saw lots of equipment being unloaded.  It's such a great park - it was great to see it being so well used.

Found it 03/08/2014You found Halpatiokee Kids' Kache - DinosaursVisit Log
One of the items on our joint "to do" list with the Sharkie Crew was to check out their cache in Halpatiokee. After restocking "A Picnic with Grandma", (AKA Mrs Bend) Mrs Sharkie joined us in grabbing a couple of easy, bushwack-free caches in the park. Cache was found out in plain sight so we signed the log and replaced it in the same site but added some camo. TFTC 
Found it 03/08/2014You found Halpatiokee Kids' Kache - Creepy CrawliesVisit Log
We came down to the park today with Sharkie Crew to check and restock "A Picnic with Grandma". Since we were here, we decided to grab a couple of the Kids Kaches. This cache is in good condition, Signed log and replaced as found. TFTC
                                          **********************


Then we were off to Tradition to do some shopping.  Batteries for the smoke detectors, shoes for Dick, and hooray - birthday presents for me!  We bought an air pop popcorn popper and an electic teakettle.  Now Florida is even etter equipped than T.C. :)

Hunger set in, and we had dinner at Olive Garden - they said it would be a 25 minute wait.  In actuality, it was less than 10 minutes - our lucky day.

On the way to South Fork to Pick up Dylan, we stopped at a cache in an unusual place.  It was right off of Pratt Whitney Road, and yet it seemed very remote somehow.  It was like two tracking in the U.P. after a heavy rain!  Anyhow, the cache was found, and it's a unique memory.

Found it 03/08/2014You found  Hide AwayVisit Log
We were on our way to South Fork HS with Sharkie Crew to pick up Zoroan from tennis practice. We were a little early and we have found a number of the caches down this road so we decided to attempt to add this one to our list. We noticed that no finds were logged since late last fall but no DNF's either. Although we are used to caches being left alone because of snow depth, we are certain that was not the case here. Drove right up to GZ, made the find, signed the log and replaced as found. TFTC
Laurie's picture of Hide Away.  She claims that Basswood Bend is in there somewhere :)

















Friday, March 07, 2014

Second Time Around

Paracentesis.  Again.  Krissy and Sara - nice people.  Dr. Schroeder this time.   Nice man.  Seemed to go faster this time - in at 8:45, home before 11 a.m.    Ten pounds lighter now.  A little shaky still,  Recuperating at home with my best friend and companion and hand holder.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Gym of the South



Our lovely fitness center across the street from our condo!  So nice and so convenient!

Big storm warnings this afternoon.  The local media went crazy pointing out possible tornadoes and deluges.  I want to make T shirts that say " I survived the Martin County Tornado Warning".

We had dinner with the Gillespies - spaghetti with meat sauce - a perennial favorite!  Fun talking to
Dylan and Chip.  The most fun for the Steiger branch was looking at pictures from the 60s which were on a disc that Archer sent to Dick.  Many chuckles!



Sunset reflected in the pool




Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Rug-apalooza



Gym

Lunch at home

Rug shopping with Laurie at Floors Direct - what a great place!

http://www.floorsdirectinc.com

 They have all types of flooring displayed in an easy to explore setting.  We took about an hour to choose our new living room rug - it wasn't easy!  The rug is paid for and now we just have to wait for it to be bound and picked up.  Laurie and Chip will pick it up to save paying for delivery.  I think we did well.  Poor Dick was bored out of his skull.

It will look something like this, only not quite.  Is that perfectly clear?


Made an appointment for my second paracentesis - it will be on Friday morning.

Dinner at home.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Those Who Stay.....



ATOP THE BIG TEN MOUNTAIN
MGOBLUEJon Horford
MGOBLUE
Jon Horford
MGOBLUE

March 4, 2014
Site: Champaign, Ill. (State Farm Center)
Score: #12 Michigan 84, Illinois 53
Records: U-M (22-7, 14-3 Big Ten), Illinois (17-13, 6-11 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event: Saturday, March 8 -- vs. Indiana (Crisler Center), 6 p.m. [TV: ESPN]
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Sophomore Nik Stauskas (Mississauga, Ontario/St. Mark's School [Mass.]) scored 24 points on 7-of-9 three-point shooting as the University of Michigan men's basketball team (No. 12 AP, No. 12 ESPN/USA Today) overwhelmed Illinois, 84-53, on Tuesday night (March 4) at the State Farm Center. The victory clinched the regular-season Big Ten title for the Wolverines, the first time they have won the conference outright since the 1985-86 season.
As a team, Michigan shot 16-of-23 (70 percent) from three, tying the team record for most made three-point field goals in a single game (U-M last did it against Houston Baptist on Dec. 7, 2013). Sophomore Caris LeVert (Pickerington, Ohio/Central) scored 15 points, and his classmate Glenn Robinson III (St. John, Ind./Lake Central) posted 13 points and five rebounds. Freshman Derrick Walton Jr. (Harper Woods, Mich./Chandler Park Academy) also filled the stat sheet, posting nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.